Cosmology
Cosmological Principle Cosmological Principle: Observers on Earth do not occupy any special location in the Universe. Two consequences of the cosmological principle are homogeneity and isotropy. Homogeneous Universe: The same observational evidence is available from any part of the Universe. It doesn't matter where you are located in the Universe. Isotropic: Over sufficiently large distances the Universe looks the same in any direction we look.
Cosmological Redshift A redshift caused by the expansion of the universe is called cosmological redshift. We can easily calculate the factor by which the Universe has expanded from some previous time as follows: z = (lobs - l0)/l0 lobs/l0 = (1+z) This means that if you observe an object to have a redshift of z = 1 the distance between us and the object has increased by a factor of 2 from the time the photon left that object and arrived to Earth. How does the volume and density change?
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Evidence of a Hot Big Bang Calculations of the amount of Helium expected to have been produced a few minutes just after the Big Bang agrees well with the amounts of He observed in primordial gas. In order for the Universe to have produced those HHe fusion reactions it must have been extremely hot and dense filled with high energy photons. As the universe expanded the plasma cooled and when it reached T~3000 K electrons combined with protons to form neutral H. At this point (~ 380,000 years after the Big Bang) photons were able to escape the plasma and travel freely through space. Since then the universe has expanded by a factor of about 1100.
Radiation of the Universe Photons are massless particles that travel across the Universe at the speed of light and constitute a form of radiation. Radiation from the hot plasma produced just after the Big Bang has a blackbody spectrum. Recall that a Blackbody spectrum is characterized by a peak wavelength and a Temperature that follow Wien’s Law:
Evidence of a Hot Big Bang In 1965 Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson while working at Bell Labs on a horn antenna discovered cosmic background radiation left over from the hot Big Bang. Temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) now Tobs = 2.725 K Because of the cosmological redshift the spectrum of the CMB is redshifted making the observed temperature now much cooler than the original one of 3,000 K! Tobs = 0.0029K/lobs lobs/l0 = (1+z) lobs =(1+z) l0~1100 l0 l0 = 0.0029/3,000K Tobs = 3,000K/1100 ~2.73 K Penzias and Wilson in front of the Horn Antenna.
Evidence of a Hot Big Bang The first high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background came from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which was placed in Earth orbit in 1989. The CMB intensity is almost perfectly isotropic with a slight variation in temperature across the sky.
Evidence of a Hot Big Bang The microwave background appears slightly warmer than average toward the constellation of Leo and slightly cooler than average in the opposite direction toward Aquarius. In this map of the entire sky made from COBE data, the plane of the Milky Way runs horizontally across the map, with the galactic center in the middle. Color indicates temperature—red is warm and blue is cool. The small temperature variation across the sky is caused by Earth’s motion through the microwave background.
Evidence of a Hot Big Bang Because of the Doppler effect, we detect shorter wavelengths in the microwave background and a higher temperature of radiation in that part of the sky toward which we are moving. This part of the sky is the area shown in red. In the opposite part of the sky, shown in blue the microwave radiation has longer wavelengths and a cooler temperature.
Temperature Variations in the CMB The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) launched in 2001. This map from WMAP data shows small variations in the temperature of the cosmic background radiation across the entire sky. WMAP images show temperature variations of the CMB of the order of 2 × 10-4 K around the average value of 2.725K. The bluer regions a lower temperature and higher density. These denser regions will evolve to become the galaxies and clusters of galaxies in the Universe. This 2.725K background radiation originates from the recombination era some ~ 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Why Me? Why Now? In the past dark energy was unimportant and in the future it will be dominant! We just happen to live at the time when dark matter and dark energy have comparable densities. In the words of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan, “ Why me? Why now?
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a
Astro 129: Chapter 1a